Berwick Lodge Primary School principal Henry Grossek with the times tables poster distributed by Gembrook MP Tammy Lobato.
By Callan Date
CONTROVERSY is brewing around MP Tammy Lobato after the Gembrook member tried to distribute posters dubbed blatant electioneering material by Berwick Lodge Primary School principal Henry Grossek.
Ms Lobato was in trouble with school officials last Friday after angrily approaching the class teacher who refused to hand out the material.
Mr Grossek said eight and nineyearold students looked on in shock as Ms Lobato confronted teacher Gloria Abdy about her decision to give the posters showing multiplication tables to Mr Grossek and not the students.
Ms Lobato sent copies of the poster to a number of primary schools in her electorate but also chose to distribute them to her son’s class at Berwick Lodge.
Mr Grossek said instead of going through the official avenues to distribute the posters, Ms Lobato had tried to “slip them through the back door” and delivered them directly to her son’s teacher.
“I think it is blatant electioneering and because she hasn’t gone through the proper avenues it is very disappointing. The handout is blatant in its political nature and the school is just disappointed in how Tammy has gone about the whole episode,” Mr Grossek said.
At the centre of the debate is a coloured poster with multiplication tables that features a picture of Ms Lobato along with contact details to her office and a section titled – ‘How can Tammy help you?’
“We don’t like politicians advertising their profile on material like this and trying to distribute it to the students without permission is just totally inappropriate,” he said.
Mr Grossek said that the money used to design and produce the posters would have been better off spent on more appropriate learning materials.
“A lot of schools are crying poor and, when we get a glossy brochure from a politician, well, we would much rather the money go to something more useful that the students will benefit from,” he said.
Ms Lobato defended her actions and said she was devastated that her goodwill gesture had become a political football.
The MP said the cost of producing the posters was taken from “the funds used to run my office” and believed the total amount spent was irrelevant to the issue.
The company that printed the material, Kosdown Printing, told the Gazette that 10,000 posters were printed at a total cost of $2500.
Ms Lobato said she was disappointed about how the whole situation had been handled by Mr Grossek and said she deserved to be treated the same as other school parents.
“Like every other parent at the school, I deserve to be approached by a principal who has concerns and for him to go directly to the media is wrong,” Ms Lobato said.
“All I was trying to do was a favour for the children in my son’s class and it has turned into a really disappointing situation.”
She said on a number of occasions school principals in her electorate had requested her assistance to educate students about various aspects of government and she was more than happy to help out.
Berwick Primary School and St Margaret’s School in Berwick also received the posters but had taken a different approach in dealing with the materials.
St Margaret’s junior school principal Andrew Ward said the school might use the posters in the classroom but the teaching of maths had progressed a long way since the old format of multiplication tables.
“We received about 300 posters but we are yet to hand them out to the students,” Mr Ward said.
“The times tables poster is quite an outdated way of teaching maths and the learning methods have developed quite a bit since maths was taught that way.”
Although perceived as an oldfashioned way to teach mathematics, Berwick Primary School chose to distribute one poster to each of its 700 students.
Principal Brian Mills said he had no issue with either the political content of the poster or the actual learning material on the handout.
“We distributed the posters to all of our students and I don’t care what political persuasion may be attached to the learning materials, just as long as it helps the children,” Mr Mills said.
“We have had businesses sponsor materials that have been distributed throughout the school before and I have had no problem with it,” he said.
